bike culture blogged

Ruthie sent this post to us before getting ready for her trip. We haven’t met her, but know many of the same people. A bike geek who codes? Sound familar? Did to us.

Hi! My name’s Ruthie, and I’m a web developer in my mid-20’s living in Boston, Massachusetts. This Wednesday, I’ll be getting on my bike in Boston and begin pedaling towards San Francisco, California. Along the way, I’ll be talking with tech folks in towns big and small, brainstorming ideas for how, via the web, we can make life better for people across America.

Why Collect Stories?

Next year I’ll be working as a Code for America fellow, helping American cities use web technology better. By collecting and sharing the stories of tech folks working with and within government, I hope to learn about how web technology is used in different ways in different parts of the U.S.A. I hope that hearing each other’s stories will help us identify common challenges and be smarter about solving them.

Help A Cycling Coder Out

Do you know web technologists anywhere along my route? I’m especially interested in folks working at the intersection of government and web tech in America (examples: a small-town mayor who’s also the town webmaster; a data analyst for a big city who used an open data set to plan better bus routes; etc.), but I’d love to talk to web technologists in other sectors, too—it’ll be interesting to see what patterns and commonalities emerge. If this description makes you think, “Hey, Ruthie should talk to ____!”, please email ruthie@cyclingcoder.com and put us in touch. Thanks so much!

Follow Along

Tag along with me this summer by checking out my route map; I’ll be updating the map with my GPS coordinates daily. I’ll also be blogging my journey at http://www.CyclingCoder.com and posting trip photos to Flickr. Though I haven’t recorded any interviews yet, you should bookmark http://www.cyclingcoder.com/stories and check back in the coming weeks. Thanks for your support, and see you on the road!